That didn’t take long! Morrow back in M’s rotation

So much for the idea of allowing Brandon Morrow to go down to Tacoma to build up his arm strength and slowly work his way back into contention for the Seattle Mariners starting rotation.

Manager Don Wakamatsu announced Friday in Colorado that Morrow will be starting Saturday for the Mariners in place of Erik Bedard, who has some inflammation in his left throwing shoulder.

Brandon Morrow

Wow. Didn’t see that one coming!

Morrow will be kept on a 60-pitch count in the 5:10 p.m. start against the Rockies and this is obviously a stop-gap solution to a problem that should clear itself up quickly since Bedard is only expected to miss the one start.

Additionally, Ryan Rowland-Smith is throwing for Tacoma tonight at Sacramento in what could be his last rehab start if all goes well. The Mariners had intended to bring him up Thursday to start in Baltimore, but decided against that after he got shredded in Cheney Stadium last weekend.

So hopefully Morrow does a decent job on Saturday against the Rockies and takes that confidence with him to AAA ball, where he can take the proper path to developing himself into a big-league starter.

But this one seems awkward and I’m surprised the Mariners are putting the somewhat-fragile youngster into this situation. Morrow threw 33 pitches in his last outing, 2 1/3 innings in Baltimore on Tuesday.

Morrow said he’s excited to get the opportunity, of course, and Wakamatsu says it’s possible they might just have to stretch him out at the big-league level instead of Tacoma.

But didn’t Morrow just say a few days ago that he was ready to go down to Tacoma and go through the necessary steps to become a starter? And didn’t that sound like a perfectly reasonable approach and a long-overdue definitive decision on Morrow’s long-term future with the Mariners?

Seems like this guy has been yo-yo’d around far too much already in his short career.

As an interesting aside, Wakamatsu also said Ken Griffey Jr. will start in left field on Saturday for the Mariners, which answers the question of how Junior would be used — or not used — during the upcoming six days of interleague play on the road.

With no DH, Griffey needs to dust off the outfield glove. And with Morrow starting, the old guy might just get a little action out there in left …